Light boxes of various designs have been suggested for use as displays. For example, the light box depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 2,756,529. Other light boxes have been used by medical practitioners, artists and draftsman in their work or as an aid in reading x-rays or other similar transparent images. Commercial light boxes of various designs are offered on page 421 of the 1998 Dick Blick Art Materials catalog and on page 51 of the Dick Blick Art Materials D-C catalog.
Such light boxes, while useful, are somewhat lacking in versatility in that, for example, the device of U.S. Pat. No. 2,756,529 may rest on a counter or table and present its rectangular translucent surface vertically in a portrait format, it can not do so in a vertical landscape format, or easily hang from a wall in either format or be used flat on a table by an artist or a draftsman.
Other patent documents of possible interest, although not specific to light boxes, are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,329,712; 3,686,894; 3,041,763; 2,072,167; and 1,225,195.